Meta-Morphosis – Facebook’s Financial Feats and Internal Turmoil

Is this a good or bad time for Meta/Facebook?

Last week, Meta (aka Facebook) beat expectations for first-quarter profit and revenue, resulting in a 13%+ surge in its shares.
The company added over $50 billion to its market value.
Meta’s stock has gained 98% year-to-date, while the S&P 500 is up 8% over the same period.

I know what you’re thinking… “I thought Meta/Facebook was dying?!?”

At the same time, employees (and others) are calling for the head of Mark Zuckerberg, who has been accused of being out-of-touch with his team members, lacking a proper vision for “what’s next,” and missing some key plays in how the tech space has evolved in recent years.

Why does Wall Street love this?

According to the news sources:

• Consistent growth in the user base.
• A strong business model.
• This focus on optimizing costs… or letting go of many employees, is often loved by the players of stocks.
• Integration of AI tools to optimize newsfeed and advertising opportunities.
• A newly announced share repurchase program worth $40 billion.

What is this “year of efficiency”?

Meta plans to eliminate 21,000 jobs and flatten its middle-management structure.
This is 1/4 of its workforce.
And, all of this is happening at a time when companies seems to be shifting from CX (customer experience) to EX (employee experience) – check out Tiffani Bova’s upcoming book, The Experience Mindset.
Now, more than ever, companies are doing everything that they can to reverse the trend of employee dissatisfaction.
Won’t it make the current employees more disenfranchised, as their team members are let go and the stress lingers for their own future?
Yes… and… when you remove so many jobs, you may actually find a core group of people left who really want to be there… and believe in the company’s purpose and vision.

What about Meta’s big bet on the metaverse?

Well, I’d recommend taking a listen to this recent episode of Six Pixels of Separation – The ThinkersOne Podcast with the “Godmother of the Metaverse,” Cathy Hackl.
Cathy is the founder and Chief Metaverse Officer at Journey, along with being the author of The Augmented Workforce, Navigating the Metaverse, and her latest book, Into The Metaverse.
We discuss, debate and don’t always agree the future of the metaverse.
For Meta (and others), there is no clear path to the metaverse (yet).
Portal was discontinued in 2022.
The Meta Quest devices have not been profitable for the company, with $13+ billion in operating costs last year.
Plus, Apple is rumored to launch a VR device of their own in June.
Will the customers/users follow?

What’s next for Meta?

This is what Elias Makos and I discussed on CJAD 800 AM this week. Listen in right here.

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